Virginia's Demetrious Nicholson still weighing options ahead of Pittsburgh game

Pregame nerves are a normal part of the routine for Virginia cornerback Demetrious Nicholson, but the fidgety, restless feeling he had Saturday before U.Va.’s 45-13 win against Kent State was different than past experiences.

Not since U.Va.’s fifth game last season had Nicholson played in a college game. A turf-toe injury that required surgery robbed him of the last seven games in his junior season, the first four games this season and could still keep him off the field for the back half of this season.

Sitting in the locker room before the Kent State game, Nicholson worried about getting his technique wrong, getting lost in the moment and losing focus. He rarely has concerns about his chops as a cornerback.

“I just kind of felt like this was my first game all over again,” said Nicholson, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound senior who graduated from Bayside High in Virginia Beach.

“Once I got back out there and started running around and seeing plays right before my eyes and getting the speed of the game again, it was like riding a bike. You never lose it. You know what to do.”

Now, he has to judge if he’s really back to where he wants to be as a player, or if he’ll aim for a medical redshirt to get a season of eligibility back. Time is running out for him to make a decision.

If all goes well in practice this week, he could play again Saturday night in U.Va.’s pivotal home game against Pittsburgh (3-2 overall, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), which features one of the ACC’s top wide receivers in sophomore Tyler Boyd (27 catches for 365 yards and four touchdowns).

Nicholson will have to use U.Va.’s off-week on the schedule next week to determine if he wants to stick it out this season, or if he’ll stop playing and apply for the medical hardship waiver.

“This is a big matchup this weekend,” said Nicholson, who added that his toe injury has caused pain in other parts of his foot while trying to compensate for the injury. “This weekend is definitely going to be a big weekend for me. If I don’t play, then practice obviously didn’t go well throughout the week and my foot just wasn’t up to par. If I do play, then I’ll have the opportunity to see how I feel after that since we have a bye week coming up. I’d have time to actually think about what I want to do for the rest of the season.”

Nicholson, who tied for the ACC lead in 2012 with 15 pass breakups, made his presence felt in his first game back. He was back on the field as a starter, which was the same role he enjoyed for the first 30 games of his college career before the toe injury.

With U.Va. (3-2, 1-0) clinging to a 14-10 lead late in the second quarter against Kent State, Nicholson ripped a pass away from wide receiver Chris Humphrey in the end zone after going to the ground with Humphrey in a wrestling match for the ball. It was the fourth interception of Nicholson’s career.

“That was a critical play, and sometimes that’s from experience,” U.Va. coach Mike London said. “That’s from guys that have been in games before. It’s hard to teach young players that just because they both come down with it, ‘OK, I’m going to let go of the ball.’ In that case, it was just a smart player making a good play that led to positive results for us.”

Nicholson said he felt a little sore before halftime, but he played through the pain and finished with five tackles and a pass breakup to go along with his interception. His veteran presence in U.Va.’s secondary meant something to his teammates.

“I say he’s like a technician at his position,” U.Va. senior strong safety Anthony Harris said. “He’s very smooth and very clean with his technique … Having a guy like (Nicholson) who’s seasoned, who’s played a lot of football, he can communicate stuff that he’s seeing. He’s a guy that can feel comfortable right away leaving him over there on an island, so having him back out there is exciting.”

U.Va. is second in the ACC in interceptions this season with eight. But it’s 12th in pass defense in the conference, giving up 248.2 yards per game, while having more passes attempted (182) against it than any other ACC defense.

After spending most of the first month of the season concentrating on agility drills in practice with U.Va.’s strength and conditioning staff, Nicholson returned last week to the full practice regimen — one-on-one drills, seven-on-seven against U.Va.’s offense, team period work.

He made it through practice last week without many issues and played more than 50 snaps against Kent State. He’ll have to do it all again this week in practice without any setbacks to prove he’s ready to possibly see a receiver with an NFL future like Boyd across the line of scrimmage.

“I have a feeling it’s going to bother me throughout practices or games because I had surgery on it, but I’m still trying to figure out if that’s something that’s going to get better or worse,” said Nicholson, who admitted he thinks all the time about whether it would be wiser just to go ahead and apply for the medical redshirt this season.

“I know some people say, ‘It’s just a toe.’ It’s actually affecting my whole foot and how my foot operates. … It’s more than just a toe.”